The Deceit Of A Lifetime

It had been a relatively calm first two weeks back at school. After the initial concerns that he and Hermione had expressed on the train, and Malfoy’s threat, Harry was finally beginning to relax, wondering if maybe he was finally going to have a school year without some traumatic incident that left further scars on his person and his soul.

He was lying in bed, clothed in just his pajama bottoms, his sheet tucked under his arms and his arms folded behind his head. He was staring up at the ceiling, allowing idle thoughts to just flutter through his mind, concentrating on nothing in particular.

His private revelry, however, was interrupted when he heard what sounded like a shout. Based on the volume, it sounded as if it were coming from the Gryffindor common room. “Ron,” said Harry, jumping quickly out of bed and advancing to his friend’s, shaking him slightly in hopes of awakening him.

“Hrmmm?” muttered Ron sleepily in response.

“Get up!” Harry replied, more loudly, as he continued to shake his friend. “Someone screamed downstairs!”

To Harry’s chagrin, Ron merely rolled over and seemed to go back to sleep. It took only a few moments, but Harry decided that whatever was going on, he didn’t have time to wait for Ron to wake up. He grabbed his wand from his nightstand and ran over to the door. Just as he was about to pull it open, he heard muttering on the other side before the entire door, frame and all, came flying into the room, pushing him back with it and burying him under the splintered wood at the far corner of the room.

It took a moment for Harry to regain himself, but he noticed quickly that the other boys sharing his room had jumped out of their beds. However, as he straightened his glasses and turned toward the now-missing door, his eyes went wide as they refocused on their intruder. The intruder was robed, and his face hidden, and Harry could not recognize the voice. “Hello, Harry,” the voice spat angrily, the intruder’s wand aimed at the raven-haired Boy Who Lived.

“What the bloody hell!” Harry heard Ron yell as he noticed the intruders. All the other boys had drawn their wands and were pointing them at the intruder. Harry’s, however, had slipped from his grasp in the explosion, and was lying near the feet of the intruder.

The intruder followed Harry’s gaze, noticing the wand on the floor. He bent over and picked it up, without his eyes ever leaving the Harry. “Missing this?” the voice cackled coldly, and Harry felt a nervous shiver run down his spine. The robed man then inclined his head slightly to the side, looking at the other boys in the room. “I suggest you put your wands away. Our dear Mr. Potter here would find himself dead before any of you could cast something to stop me.”

The threat, the boys realized quickly, was not an idle one. Harry tried to allay his own fears as he watched his friends lower their wands, but he knew that he had to get this intruder away from his friends, before anyone else got hurt. “What do you want?” Harry hollered over at the man, to get his attention away from the other boys.

“Stand up, Potter,” replied the voice.

Harry did as he was told, pushing the door fragments off his body. He winced in pain as he felt an array of cuts and scrapes the splintered wood had left on his body, but eventually pulled himself to his feet. “What do you want?” Harry repeated, with more authority in his voice, even though he was speaking more softly than before.

“Come over here,” hissed the robed man, ignoring Harry’s question.

Harry complied, taking slow steps over to the man. When he was within reach, Harry felt his arm being yanked, and he quickly found himself being held tightly against his assailant, facing his friends, with a very unfriendly wand pointed at his head. “You boys will stay right where you are,” said the voice.

“Let him go!” Ron yelled angrily, causing the intruder to flick his wand in the direction of the voice for only a moment. The other boys seemed to rally behind Ron at this sentiment, slowly moving closer to each other, but Harry’s assailant seemed to notice.

“Back away from each other!” hissed the robed voice angrily. Being as close as he was, he could hear the rasped breathing of his attacker. He could also hear the soft, evil chuckle in the man’s voice as he slowly began to move.

Harry tried to stop the tremble that went through his body, but he couldn’t. He felt himself slowly being pulled toward the door of the dorm, and he wanted to scream in frustration as his friends disappeared behind the remains of the door frame. He was being dragged down the stairs, to a fate he didn’t want to imagine, but at the same time he was overwhelmed with thankfulness that his friends were safe now.

About halfway down the stairs back to the common room, however, Harry and his assailant both heard a loud noise behind them, from the common room. Before Harry realized what was happening, he heard a female voice yell “Stupefy,” and then he felt himself falling. The fall lasted a few moments, before it seemed to suddenly stop, and darkness swallowed him completely in its grasp.